The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1919. GOVERNMENT INSINCERITY.

Taihape Daily Times, 6 March 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1919. GOVERNMENT INSINCERITY.

(With which t« Tr.corDftrntHd The Tadhape Port rjad Wa.lts»rl'ji> N'owa'L

«a> Men are so careless of their words in the present day that one is led to wonder whether a moral deterioration of the whole world is not taking place. There was a time when, at least, the words of some men could be taken as their bond, but now it. is the custom to assert and to hold to that assertion so long as it is tenable and then leave its covert for another of a similar character. Public men stated a case and the public believed them because the words of those men were their bond,, who is foolish enough to entirely believe what anybody says to-day ? Contrary to fact, public men and quasipublic, men make utterances to-day shamelessly risking whether any other person is in possession of the evidence, and, if so, will produce that evidence to convict them. Public men and polical systems are supported in all parts of the British Empire, and notably in 'New Zealand, by a boldness of careless speech and questionable assertion as much as they are in the German Empire, or, in fact, any .other empire. AVith all the 'assertiveness of fact :;.

postulate is set up to-day only to bo consigned to the hugely growing accumulation of lying canards to-morrow, and there is not a semblance of shame or contrition. A bold statement made by a public man that there is no unemployment in New Zealand is immediately met with evidence from the Returned Soldiers' Association officials that there is a distressing want of employment amongst returned soldiers, and that an appeal is made to employers to get rid cf the cheap gi r i labour that was taken on to fill men's places while they were away fighting for their country.- and let the men resume their old position? again: the;* accuse employers of not playing the game, of not keeping the promise of reinstatement in their old positions when they returned. It is well-known that hundreds in Christchurch and elsewhere cannot obtain work despite the. fact that they are well able to perform their pre-war duties, nuti y 0 t for some reason, political or otherwise. it is boldly asserted that there is no unemployment. .Labour circles are already noting the drifting policy with regard to land settlement, production, and unemployment, and there is already very serious doubt as to whether the Government was sincere in its flourish of promises about the institution of public works all over the country to absorb the great surplus of labour that the end of the war would flood The country with. Labour circles are, apparently no less sophisticated than those who at present control the political destinies of this country, and they have perceived that in Government inaction and drift there lies premeditated policy: that drift in land settlement and unemployment are part of a programme to create-a condition that a rush may be made to retrieve at the Opportune moment when votes are required, at least, this is how some Labour leaders are viewing the do-no-thing persistence of the National Government. Some Ministers are using the Government Printing Office in broadcasting their views and in letting the People know their side of fhlTvarious questions as they state it; newspapers are furnished with Ministerial Statements which they are asked to publish; Ministers request that their statements to deputations on land and other matters be published, which have all the appearance of political propaganda, for it is only one or two Ministers who are indulging in such practices. The leaders of the masses of the people know quite well that a

campaign of pretence is being kept going till after the general election. which it is now disclosed is to be held at the earliest possible moment, and then only, if the same old regime prevails, will the <ruc policy regarding land settlement', labour conditions, and taxation be made known. No man or woman in this country knows anything of the policy for the future of any political party, but from the extent -,o which >and 5s being daily aggregrated into large holdings that the Government has no intention of constlTuting a policy that will cover the land with homesteads and happy contented families. Whenever Ministers are approached they almost invariably shelter behind such irrelevant, unsatisfying nonsense as "we are not so badly off as workers and returned soldiers in Eng~ gland or Timbuctoo. The Unexpected delay in the evolution of generally acceptable peace terms has kept the two political leaders in Europe longer than was anticipated, and the calibre of some Ministers left behind ia being over-taxed in keeping up iho do-noth-ing stonewall till they return: but, 5t seems, the needs of the people, the rights of returned soldiers, must all be subordinated to the interests of politicians who hold the ropes while landaggregation and shameful profiteering work their deadly schemes of plunder on the patience-exhausted masses. There is no more virtue in. the words of men who govern and.who .seek to govern than there js ;n the words of any other common person. To be told there is ample land for soldier settlement while soldiers everywhere are despairing of being able to get land; that it is all bunkum about unemployment while the Christchurch branch of the Returned Soldiers' Association is petitioning for posit'.ons for unemployed returned men, does not tend to prove the estimate the pubiic already has of such public men. The ment is tentatively assisting in a scheme for putting soldiers on land tha,j, could have been leased for a few pence per acre a few years ago, land that a land speculating company actually bought from someone else for twentyfive shillings an acre, and shareholders were assured of 100 per cent profit on their investments in this company. Let it be under.-Sood that this particular land between "Rotorua and Taupo, known as the Waiotanu estate, has been boomed by flaring newspaper advertisement? since the company was formed in 1912 to exploit it, but it is known too well in Rotorua for anyone to touch it at any price. Now, i his company is endeavouring to unload it 07; the Govemmentf or returned soldiers, and this just about represents the official gratitude, to soldiers who have risked'their lives for (heir country. We shall not be at all -•iirprisod to learn that the Government baa bought back this land which the natives sold as valueless for sixpence an acre, perhaps less, for we have not at the moment figures before us. We have undeniable evidence that far better land than the Rotorua to Taupo country, all of which is covered with Tarawera dust, around Rotorua, takes many years of continuous working and manuring to bring it to a profit-earning state, and then it is so light that when it is ploughed the winds blow it away. Years of cattle treading is necessary to firm such soil so that a sole of grass and clover will not pull out by browsing cattle. Once firmed this land cannot be disturbed without destroying its grazing value. Ancient history is raked op to give this land a character. There is land around Rotorua that was in. the earliest days of settlement used for wheat growing, and there are the remains of the old stone mills erected for flour making, but since those days many feet of dust from volcanoes have been spread on the -old level which now seems to have vanished altogether. It would be cruel to take soldiers to sec the old settled pumice land in from Putaruru and to tell them that the Waiotapu land will give similar results. Why will not the Government, be, frank in their land settlement and provisions for re-ab-sorption of our soldiers into civil life. Mr Guthrie states that returned men will not give the time for a course of training, then why waste time and money in impracticable gallery shows? Put land at the disposal of men in the- sized areas their experience warrants. Ninety per cent of men on the land commenced with but very meagre experience of farming, and the men who have had the courage to fight the Huns are going tcTbe no less successful. The fact is. there is a want of sincerity about the conduct of the Government that has brought about universal mistrust, and until that is remedied it seems hopeless to expect any improvement.